Three gin cocktails for summer

Make these at home

[Originally published at Culinate, 7/29/10.]

Courtesy of Culinate.

In the recently reissued book The Hour: A Cocktail Manifesto, author Bernard DeVoto sternly writes that there are only two cocktails worth drinking. One is a slug of whiskey. The other is a dry Martini, made precisely to the ratio of 3.7 parts gin to 1 part vermouth. Any other mixed drink is an “abomination.”

Oh, please. While a well-made Martini is indeed a wonderful thing, gin is much more flexible than that, and there’s no better time to mix with it than in the summer. The botanicals in the spirit pair naturally with citrus in refreshing summer cocktails. And even if one doesn’t care for the juniper bite of a traditional London Dry gin, there are plenty of new gins on the market that are perfect for mixing into cocktails not as austere as DeVoto’s idealized Martini.

The classic summer gin drink is the Tom Collins, a simple combination of gin, sugar, lemon juice, and soda that was appearing in cocktail books as early as the 1870s. At the time it would have been made with lightly sweetened Old Tom gin or genever, a malty Dutch spirit flavored with juniper and other botanicals. Today it’s more commonly made with a London Dry. The fruity, floral Beefeater Summer Edition, which adds elderflower, blackcurrant, and hibiscus to the usual recipe, works well here.

Pour the first 3 ingredients into an ice-filled collins glass, top with soda, stir gently, and enjoy.

Another great summer gin cocktail is the Pegu Club, described in the 1930Savoy Cocktail Book as “the favourite cocktail of the Pegu Club, Burma, and one that has traveled, and is asked for, round the world.” The original Pegu Club is no longer open for business, but an excellent cocktail bar by that name has opened in New York City. You can order one there or make a contemporary adaptation of the drink at home:

The ingredients in this drink combine to create a crisp, almost grapefruity cocktail. Any London Dry will do here, though I like it with softer gins like Plymouth or Oxley, a unique, cold-distilled gin that just recently arrived on the market.

The Tom Collins and Pegu Club are easy to make; this last drink requires a little more work, but the advanced preparation pays off with a unique cocktail. This is a winning drink I created for a summer cocktail competition last year with Organic Nation gin, an organic spirit produced in Ashland, Oregon. It’s designed for summer grilling in the backyard, featuring watermelon juice and smoky notes from lapsang souchong tea.

To make it, you’ll need to juice a watermelon (I just cut it up into chunks and muddle it in a shaker, then squeeze it through a strainer) and create an ingredient called Swedish punsch. This punsch recipe is based on that of bartender Max Toste:

Shake the first four ingredients, then strain into an ice-filled collins glass. Top with soda and stir. Garnish with a skewered chunk of watermelon, or with pickled watermelon rind if you’re feeling especially ambitious.

Bernard DeVoto would not have liked any of the “abominations” described above, but for the rest of us, they are a delicious way to enjoy one of the world’s great spirits during the summer heat.

Jacob Grier is a freelance writer, bartender, cocktail consultant, and magician in Portland, Oregon, and the author of Cocktails on Tap: The Art of Mixing Spirits and Beer. His articles have appeared in the print or online editions of The Washington Post, The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, The Los Angeles Times, Reason, The Oregonian, Eater, and other publications. [Photo by Michael Ingram.]